บท 23: Trouble at the Astala Estate
Petting Shadow and almost falling asleep on the comfortable bed Alice can faintly hear shouts and sounds of swords clashing against each other. Sitting up quickly the only thing Alice could remember was Yumi talking about people targeting her family.
Quickly equipping her armor and taking out her scythe Alice dashes out of her room and through the hall ways to the sounds of the battle taking place. Exiting the hallway near the stairwell she sees Duke Astala his daughter, and some of the servants Yumi introduced her to fighting against hooded mercenaries.
Having flash backs as her heart starts racing Alice sees the scenes of battle that took place before she was killed. As if a switch flipped in Alice her gaze turns cold as she unconsciously lets out her 'Demonic Gaze' skill and grips her scythe so hard her knuckles turn white as her finger nails cut into her hands causing them to start bleeding. 'Alice are you okay whats going on with you i can only feel rage from your right now, ' Shadow says slowly backing away from her feeling danger.
Before he can take 2 steps back Alice uses 'Rift Warp' To appear between Duke Astala and his opponent taking them both by surprise. Not giving the hooded man a chance to react Alice quickly swings her scythe decapitating the man sending his head flying into the hands of one of the other mercenaries.
Putting a little more mana into her 'Demonic Gaze' causing the man to freeze unable to move Alice sinks into the shadows leaving everyone in the room to pause a moment to wonder where she went. Coming out of the shadows behind the mercenaries as they still looked around for her, giving the residence of the Estate time to react and land a few kills.
Ignoring her surroundings Alice raises her hand as five magic circles appear around her forming large Fireballs. "You will all die for taking my family from me, i could have had a normal life if it was not for you devils, " Alice said about to launch her magic attack only stopping because Yumi was holding onto her. Trying to break through her gaze Yumi decided to act rashly to bring Alice back to her senses kissing her.
Almost instantly Alice comes back around breaking free of her rage pushing Yumi away, "What the hell was that now isn't the time to flirt kill these devils. " She said as she dashed past Yumi leaving her feeling defeated and rejected before Yumi decided to take her anger out on the mercenaries.
After a seemingly endless battle against the invaders the battle was finally won, only resulting in the death of one of the house servants a butler who was a former D rank adventure, as well as all of the mercenaries.
"You really gave me a scare there Alice, if it wasn't for Yumi my home would be needing some serious repairs, but you have my thanks if not for you we may have lost and my daughter and I may have perished as well. " Duke Astala said bowing slightly.
"I am sorry for losing control.. they brought up some very unpleasant memories and i lost control, " Alice said feeling bad as she might have tried to kill everyone if she ended up killing all the hooded men and her rage had not died down.
"I am sorry for kissing you... I just panicked and didn't know how to snap you out of it... " Yumi said blushing and feeling like she took things to far. "It's okay, if it wasn't for me you wouldn't have had to go that far. Thank you for doing everything you could. " Alice said trying to cheer her up a little.
"Yumi why don't the two of you go to bed while i attend to some things, I will leave some money out so you ladies can go shopping tomorrow and blow off some steam, " her father said before taking his departed employee away with the other staff following. "He is right lets go to bed and go have some fin tomorrow. " Yumi said running to her room still feeling kind of down.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________
After waking up and having breakfast with Yumi the two girls headed out to explore the kingdom with a large amount of money left by Duke Astala, whom also left a note with the money.
| I have left for each one gold worth of money to go spend and unwind a little bit please have fun and try to forget about last night if possible, I have informed all of the shops we control to give you whatever you two would like so be sure to visit those shops. -Daddy- |
"Your father sure is generous i wonder how long it would take to earn this much money on your own? " Alice said feeling the weight of the money in her hands. "Don't be silly Alice you cant just hold a bag full of money in plain sight for everyone to see, that is just asking for trouble. " Yumi said taking Alice's bag of money and storing it quickly.
Following Yumi around to various shops and buying a lot of different clothes which seemed to cheer Yumi up a great deal. "Do you mind if we head to the Mages guild? " Alice asked feeling slightly exhausted from all the shopping, half of her inventory was already filled with clothing bags which is saying something since 4 bags can fit in one inventory space.
"We can stop by, there is still the auction hall i wanted to show you it starts in a few hours so we have some time to kill at the Guilds. " Yumi said while leading the way humming.
'I wonder if i should sell the weapon ornament i got from the dungeon, i may be able to make enough to buy something good, ' Alice thought to herself as she walked still debating if she should equip it to her scythe.
Arriving at the Mages Guild she was very happy to see people entering through the door like normal. "This reminds me, can you use magic Yumi? " Alice asked as they entered the Guild.
"I have the Earth element although my magical abilities are lacking pretty greatly so the most i can do is make small earth shields, " Yumi said slightly jealous of Alice's magical abilities.
"Hello welcome to the Mages Guild, how may i help you? " A young elf girl asked while reading her book only half looking up at them. "My name is Alice i came from the Rudham Kingdom and wish to learn some wind magic if i can, " Alice said hoping to learn something useful.
"Ah well currently all of our Wind element instructors are out at the Auction hall either selling items or trying to purchase items, if you come back after then i would be happy to scheduled a lesson for you. " The elf girl said getting back to her book.
"Well we were going to go there anyways we may as well go, " Yumi said taking Alice by the hand and leading her to the Auction hall. "I actually have two scimitars i obtained from a dungeon that have decent stats I would like to put up for auction, can you help me? " Alice said following Yumi.
Arriving at the Auction hall and standing in line to speak to an organizer the two chatted and Alice talked about her time in the dungeon and about the last boss. "Ugh no wonder you agreed to come with me, how could they just leave you like that? " Yumi said as she started to plot revenge on the group that left her dear Alice for dead. "Shush I have already forgiven them all that matters now is that I am continuing my journey. " Alice said as they walked up to the gentlemen in charge of listing new items.
"Please take your item out and set it on the table so I can appraise the item, this Auction hall only takes items of D rank or higher. Anything below that rank wont be scene. " The young man said casually sitting down waiting to see what Alice has to sell.
| Kobald Lords Twin Scimitars 2/2 |
STR +10
DEX +10
VIT +5
Seeing the items the young man just shrugged and took the items, "D rank weapon set, it just barely passes the only real factor to look at is the stat boost. Keep this ticket on you and turn it in after the auction is over, if your items sell then you can collect your money after we take a 8% cut. " He said handing Alice a ticket before showing the two into the main hall.
"Where should we sit, " Alice said completely clueless where to go. "Since my father donates a lot of items and money to this place we have our own VIP section to sit in, " Yumi said leading Alice upstairs.
Walking through the long hallway they eventually arrived at their room, as soon as the door opened Alice was able to clearly see the same type of luxury as the Astala estate. A crystal chandelier hung from the ceiling, the furniture was made from polished wood with fluffy silk seating, the room even had a fully stocked bar with very expensive looking liqueur. "Does everything your family has look so expensive? " Alice questioned.
"It is to be expected from the Duke who saved the Kingdom in financial crisis you learn to live with it, " Yumi said just shrugging it all off since it was second nature to her.
"There are a ton of people here, must mean that a lot of good things are being auctioned off today, maybe I will be able to get a good weapon to use on our adventures. " Yumi said looking hopeful as she leaned back in her chair slowly kicking her legs like a little kid who couldn't reach the ground would.
"What kind of weapon do you prefer to use? I have only seen you with a sword so far, " Alice questioned trying to picture Yumi with different kinds of weapons. "I am most skilled using a Kyoketsu-shoge. It is a weapon that has a double edged blade, with another curved blade attached near the hilt at a 45–60 degree angle. This is attached to 12 to 18 feet of rope, chain, or hair which then ends in a large metal ring. " Yumi said as she pulled out her old broken one.
"That's new, i have never seen a weapon like that before, " Alice said inspecting the weapon wondering how you would even fight using it.
"It is a weapon from my ancestors Kingdom far far away, my father says i could try to travel there but i may not make it before i die of old age, " Yumi said storing her broken weapon away again.
Alice sat back in her chair trying to visualize her and Yumi fighting together in a party with her using such a weird weapon, 'It's no use I just cant see that weapon being used to fight monsters. ' Alice thought to herself waiting on the auction to start.
"Ladies and Gentlemen, thank you for gathering this evening at our humble Auction Hall. As many of you already know we have quite the list of items being Auctioned today, many of the high ranking families have decided to join us today for this Auction as well. I will now explain the rules for those who are new and do not know yet. If you bid on a item and do not have the fund to pay then you shall be sent to the mines to work off your debt, after your debt is paid you will receive your item and be set free. There is to be no altercations in the Auction Hall, as always we have two A rank adventures contracted with our Hall to put a stop to anything you may cause. As soon as you're done purchasing you may head to the receptionists at anytime to pay for the items you have won bids on. Anyone breaking these rules will be subject to a fine and or banishment from the Hall. " The Auctioneer said speaking loudly and clearly.
"Without further delay let us get on with the Auction.."
ความคิดของผู้สร้าง 
Slewis
Slewis In chapters like this do you want more detail on shopping scenes? Or should i just keep things the same? (I have vastly more female readers than male so it is worth asking..)
ของขวัญ
-- ได้รับของขวัญแล้ว สถานะพลังงานรายสัปดาห์
-- การจัดอันดับด้วยพลัง 
-- หินพลัง